Where Is She Now?
by pearlchavez
Summary: Chad hasn't seen Sonny in three years. When they do eventually meet again; will he finally tell her how he feels about her? And just where did she go without saying a word to anyone?


**Author's Note: So I got this idea after watching a movie tonight, and I thought I would try and relate it to SWAC. I've been writing it ever since, and I have never felt so passionate writing something. I hope you guys enjoy it, and please tell me what you think. This is probably more mature (not sexually) than it needs to be, but please tell me what you guys think of it.**

It was a general rule that I turned off my cell phone on Sundays. It was a day for me and Emily; she had decided that a long time ago, telling me that my agent could wait and call me the next day to tell me about new auditions. I normally never turned it on, but the moment I woke up today, I remembered that I still hadn't checked a text message one of my friends from The Falls had sent me.

I couldn't believe it had been three years since I left the show. I was eighteen at the time, and I found it kinda disturbing that the only girls who ever hit on me were fourteen…and those were the older ones. That was when I took a new direction and quit my role as the brooding Mackenzie. I think the only people happy to see me go were the Randoms. I didn't know what _she_ thought, because she had been gone the year before, and no one knew where she went. I didn't even care though, because we were rivals. If her opinion mattered, I would have given a crap when she left without a word and changed her cell phone number. It was a good thing I didn't care then, wasn't it?

I almost jumped out of my skin when the phone started to ring, blaring the heavy guitar solo of Slash; I was going through a Guns and Roses phase after downloading their entire back catalogue. Emily immediately sat up straight, her auburn hair reflecting the sun from outside. She turned and glared at me, ruffling my already messy golden coloured hair.

"Really Chad? You promised it would be off!" She whined, and I shrugged my shoulders. "Please hurry up and answer it, I want to sleep a little more."

"It won't take long," I insisted, until I looked to see who was calling me. Without causing a fuss, I stepped out of bed and into the ensuite bathroom, closing the door behind me. Emily wouldn't forgive me for doing this. "Hello? What have you got for me?"

"I found her Chad," he told me with so much relief. Our two year search was over. I had been looking for Sonny Munroe since I was nineteen years old. Yeah, eventually I decided that we had to talk again; I wanted to know how she was, and things had changed. It took me a while, but I realised that maybe the reason I had wanted to talk to her the most when I was in Condor studios was maybe because I liked her as more than a friend. I went to Wisconsin, but they told me that she had been gone for a while, and had left with an uncle when her Mom passed away. No one knew where she was, and that was why I had called my good friend Harry Sloss: the man who could find anyone.

"You found her?" I hissed. Emily didn't know about her, because I had met Emily a year before, when I thought that I would never find Sonny. I didn't want to spend my life waiting for her. It sounded really bad when I repeated it to myself, but I thought that when I found her then it would be simple. I would dump Emily and Sonny and I would ride off into the sunset. Boy, I was a mature one at twenty-one, huh? I really hadn't thought this through.

"I have the address," he told me, and I immediately ran to grab a pen and paper, pissing Emily off more. When I looked at her, and thought of the seventeen year old girl I probably didn't know anymore, I wondered if I had made a huge mistake trying to find her. What if she was happy with someone else? Was I just going to walk in there and take all of that away from her? If she had cared about me so much, then why hadn't she talked to me for four years? I took down the address anyway, I hadn't paid the man my cash to find someone I wasn't going to talk to again.

"You're going out?" Emily asked me, when I told her. She was sitting topless in my bed, playing with her own phone, and she didn't look happy. "We normally stay in bed."

"I haven't saw Grady since I worked at The Falls," I lied to her. Truthfully I really hadn't seen Grady since The Falls, and I didn't plan to see him either. "I want to show him what an awesome actor I've become, maybe give him a few DVD titles."

I had been in six relatively successful movies since I left The Falls. People thought that I would disappear from the face of the earth, but I was determined that this drama king wasn't finished just yet. My good looks and smouldering talent couldn't go to waste on a community theatre. I appeared as an extra on movies, so to talk to some acclaimed directors and producers, and slowly I had built a name for myself, and it wasn't all romantic comedies either. Chad Dylan Cooper wasn't just a one-trick pony, no folks, the man was a real actor.

"Okay, I'll see you tonight?" She asked, kissing me softly. I felt like I was cheating on her; going to see a girl I hadn't spoke of to anyone since she left. When I thought about it, I could be throwing away so much for someone I didn't know anymore, but I had to see her again. There was some stupid part inside of me that kept on telling me I would regret it if I didn't, so I had to go. I told her I would definitely be home by then. I hoped that maybe I would be going home to Emily with some different news.

Sonny Munroe only lived an hour away on the train, and every stop that we passed, I looked desperately just so I knew I wasn't going to get off at the wrong place. It was probably a bad idea to order two cups of coffee when I was already scared shitless. Would I know her? Would she know me? The last question was stupid, who didn't know me? I shook my head and smirked at how ridiculous I was being, but the first question still worried me. She definitely never had a sister, so I was definitely looking for the only Alison Monroe.

The street she lived in was not too shabby, I'll tell you. When I walked through her neighbourhood, I was surrounded by crème villas with fancy cars in the driveway, blinding me with the light reflecting off of them. Wow, was she still famous? I know it sounded extremely shallow, but I hadn't seen her in anything. How the hell could she afford to live in this place.

The villa she apparently lived in was crème, with a yellow Lamborghini in the driveway. I walked up to the door, my heart pounding and a lump rising in my throat. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I had to knock on that door. I already knew to lie and pretend I was an old friend if a guy came to the door, and I could only hope that she recognised me if she came to the door. I closed my eyes and rung the doorbell at the side of the door, feeling so close to throwing up. If someone hadn't answered the door so quickly, then I would have probably left a lovely surprise in the rose bushes beside the door.

Sonny answered the door. I knew it was her immediately, with those big brown eyes of her, and the curly mane of chocolate coloured hair. She looked at me in shock, her mouth falling open so wide that I could have probably walked through it like I was passing through a tunnel. Her eyes were shining with tears and her hands were shaking. I didn't know what to say. I should have probably said something, because we were just staring at each, absorbing everything. She looked pale, and slightly gaunt. I was worried, even though we hadn't spoken.

"Sonny, I-"

"Chad," she gasped, immediately throwing her arms around me. I could feel her heart beating as if she was absolutely terrified and it only made me hold her closer to me. She pulled back a little, and cupped my face in her hands, before pulling me inside, looking around outside suspiciously. "Come into the living room, please."

The living room was a deep red colour, and she was watching an old episode of Friends on TV, but she wasn't paying attention to it. She brought me a glass of coke and laid her own on the glass coffee table. When I got a chance to look at her, I was disturbed by the nasty looking bruises on both her arms, and the purple shade underneath her left eye that I didn't notice before. I sat down on the expensive black leather armchair and she sat on the matching sofa, keeping both hands to herself.

"So, I don't even know where to start," I chuckled. There was so much that I wanted to ask her. Why was she so thin? Why did she have bruises? How did she get here? Where had she been since she left So Random? Why didn't she talk to anyone again? After all of these questions swirled in my mind, I settled on one: "How have you been?"

"I'm still here, right?" She smiled, but she quickly returned to the stern expression she had worn before. She could barely look at me without her eyes welling up with tears. "What about you? I can't believe you're here. What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"I bet you're wondering that," I smirked awkwardly, determined to keep looking her in the eye. I worried that she would disappear if I stopped looking. "I hired someone to find you."

"Why would you do that?" She asked, smiling a little. She didn't smile the way she did when she was seventeen. "I thought you hated me."

"I don't think I hated you half as much as you think I did," I replied. I didn't want her to think that at all. Was that why she left without a word to anyone? Was it my fault? "You didn't talk to anyone, and, I don't know, I guess I wanted to see how you were doing."

"I don't understand," she told me, her voice trembling. "You didn't seem to show that much interest in me back then, and now I find out you've been looking for me with a hired detective of some sort. Chad Dylan Cooper you never cease to amaze me."

"Look I know I was a jerk back then and I didn't show interest in anyone but myself," I confessed, even though I had to admit that it was still the case. It was different with Sonny though; for once it wasn't all about me. "But I'm twenty-one now, and well, you grow out of that. Will you just tell me how you're doing? You look shit scared of me."

"I'm not scared of you," she insisted, but she didn't look at me with much ease. "I'm scared of - well, I'm scared of a lot of things now. A lot's changed since we last spoke to each other. I think my life consists of more than worrying about what Tawni Hart thinks of me. I cannot believe she had the same scandal as Vanessa Hudgens, I mean did you see that one coming?" And then she laughed, and it was nice to hear for me, but she sounded like she hadn't laughed in a long time.

"I'm not even surprised," I sneered, shaking my head. I'd had to recommend my lawyer to help Tawni get out of that one without much of her reputation destroyed. "What do you do now?"

"I don't want to tell you," she shook her head, staring at the floor. She was clutching her body, like she was defending herself from something. Everything about Sonny seemed different, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I didn't like it though; it was as if I was speaking to a shell of the Sonny Munroe I once knew. "I've tried not to let anyone know what I do now."

"What is it?" I asked her worriedly. "Do you need money? Is it drugs Sonny? Is that why no one ever hears from you anymore?" She shook her head to every question I asked, and wiped a tear from her eye when I was finished.

"Who do you think you are coming to find me after so long?" She snapped, her arms still shaking as she brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, revealing a scar on her cheek. "Did you want to save me? Is that why Chad? Do you still think that you're Mackenzie? You still think you're so awesome?"

"Why would I need to save you?" I demanded, she was beginning to scare me. Suddenly the prospect of simply leaving Emily for her seemed so far away. Sonny just shook her head and stared at the ground, startled when I cupped her face in my hands. She slowly pulled away and took a sip of juice.

"I thought I loved you back then," she confessed, and it made my heart skip a beat. "Even now I still feel funny seeing you now. You're the last person I want to be here, but the only person I would ever choose to come find me. I used to hope that you would find me, before I realised that it was impossible."

"Sonny, what happened?" I asked her softly, taking her bony hand. I looked at her seriously, begging for the truth with my eyes, and she sighed heavily.

"Okay," she finally agreed, taking a deep breath so that she wouldn't cry. I had to admit that this was the last person I thought I would find today. I didn't think she would be this way; I didn't know who I expected to find, but not this shell of a woman. "You know my Mom died, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry," I sighed, putting my arm around her. Her face screwed up, and she looked like she was going to cry, but she managed to stop herself.

"I found out about an uncle I didn't know I had," she told me slowly, clasping my hand tightly. "He was my only guardian, because my grandparents were really ill. They really didn't want me staying with the guy, but I had no choice. I had no choice when he forced me to leave California without a word to anyone. Chad, I wish to God that my Mom hadn't died, every night I wish that she hadn't left me with him, because this is the last place I want to be."

"Sonny, you have to tell me what he did to you," I pleaded with her urgently. We had to get out of there. I didn't care how much she protested, it wasn't good for her. I could tell how much it had changed her, and I didn't even know what had happened.

"He's killed people, you know," she told me, and she didn't even sound shocked. I needed a few minutes to absorb it, but I didn't let go of her hand. I just looked away, looking at all of the beautiful things in her apartment, wondering how she'd managed to acquire them. "I didn't know. I didn't know he needed me to be anonymous, because he could be imprisoned if they realised who I was and followed me. I wish to God that I had known, because maybe then I wouldn't have stayed with him."

"Why didn't you get out of there?" I demanded. She looked at me furiously, her fists clenched and her eyes wide with shock, like I had so much cheek asking her that question.

"He knows people," she sighed. "He knew so many people that could easily have found me. I knew too much too soon and I was trapped. I knew who he was, what he did and who he hurt getting things. I didn't want to end up one of his victims, because he is a horrible man. I've watched horror movies with nicer killers in them."

I didn't know what to think. Staring at her with shock and alarm didn't seem enough anymore to convey the emotions that I was experiencing. I felt ill again, I felt terrified, I felt angry and I felt worried for her, all at the same time. I wanted to find a gun and kill the man that had hurt her. My heart was leaping out of my chest and I looked for a window. Sonny Munroe had to get out of there.

"Did he ever hurt you?" I demanded, looking at the bruises on her arm.

"He loves me," she said, wiping her eyes again and pulling down the sleeve of her sweater. "He doesn't want me leaving him now, because his enemies know who I am. He says that I have one of those faces you can't forget, and it could get me killed. I'm not living with him though."

"Who are you living with?" I asked her desperately, brushing my finger against her cheek, making her wince a little. "Who's did this to you?"

"He found me the best man he knows," she protested, nodding her head defiantly. "Adam will love me until I die. He's made that perfectly clear. So what if I don't come out totally unscathed? It's better than risking my life, isn't it?"

The way she spoke terrified me. She looked at me so frankly, as if there was nothing more we could do. She looked at me like she was talking about something so simple. Sonny couldn't think that she deserved this, could she? No one deserved that kind of life. I didn't think this kind of life existed past the movies, and I didn't know that someone could be trapped so easily. I felt like I was in the worst kind of movie, and I felt truly sick. A huge part of me was so relieved to find her, but a small part wondered what good my visit was going to do.

"You can't live like this," I shook my head immediately, taking her hand. "You have to get out of here with me today. I promise I will not stop until I know you're safe. I can't just leave you like this. You can't - I can't-"

"Relax," she soothed me, wrapping her arms around me, but they were so skinny. When I looked at her whole frame, it looked like she hadn't eaten in a long time. She was trying to smile at me now, but it only made the bones in her cheeks more visible. "I know it must sound so bad to hear, but this is my life now. I've been absorbing it so long now, it doesn't even matter."

"No one deserves to live in fear of their boyfriend hurting them," I protested, taking out my cell phone. "If I called the cops, they could all be arrested. This could all be over right now if you just let me help you."

"You think that if you take down Adam and my uncle that it will be over?" She snapped, pleading with me not to open my phone. I didn't want to do it, but the way she looked at me; she looked like a child, begging not to be given the blame of something she didn't do. "He knows too many people. You can't save me Chad! No one can save me!"

"You have to let me save you," I pleaded with her. She wrapped her arms around me tightly, and we held each other for a while. She cupped my face in her hands, and for a few short minutes, I saw the seventeen year old girl I used to know.

"I want you to save me too," she whispered, softly kissing me, a tear running down her cheek. I stroked her cheek softly as our lips touched and wiped her tear away. "You're the only person I waited for. Can you believe that? You were the one I was waiting for all along? I wish I had told you before."

"I should have made you stay," I told her. "If I had known how much I'd miss you when you were gone, I would have made you stay with me. I didn't know it, but I did love you, and you're telling me that you can't leave with me today?"

"I love you too," she told me, kissing me again, throwing herself into the kiss more. She clung onto me like she didn't want to let me go. I closed my eyes and imagined the whole thing differently. If there was any justice in the world then she would have never been allowed to become who she was. She didn't have to be surrounded by so much crime, death and illegal substances. She didn't deserve it! She was one of the most honest people I knew and she didn't deserve this. She had always been so innocent, and now she was trapped in a cycle that she couldn't escape from.

I felt her jump away from me when she heard a car reversing into the driveway. She pushed me away from her and immediately stood up straight. She looked at me with so much terror in her eyes and opened the back door in the kitchen.

"You have to go! Adam's back!" She hissed to me, both her arms trembling. I stood still for a second, wondering whether I should stay and fight the man. I couldn't possibly just leave her there, but she was looking at me like I was crazy and pushed me out the door. "He's killed people Chad! If he sees you here he will kill us both!"

"Sonny please, I can't just-"

"You have to go!" She pleaded, beginning to sob, the door shaking along with her hands. "You just jump the fences and you'll eventually get out! Please go! You don't need to be caught up in this. Please don't do it for me. I'll never forgive myself if I lose you because of me."

"I'm going to come back for you, and I'm going to save you," I promised her, jumping the fence. I was going to just run, but I looked back, and I saw her smiling at me a little. "Munroe, when have I never been able to do anything."

"I'll be waiting," she promised me, waving to me softly. "I will always be waiting."

She wouldn't be waiting much longer, because I was going to save her, and that was a promise.

**Author's Note: PS, I was watching Slumdog Millionaire before I wrote this =]**


End file.
